Xavi. This was the tournament of the collective rather than the individualist and that was no better demonstrated than by the way Xavi knit together this Spanish team. He might have been subdued by his own standards in the final but he still pushed and probed away at the twin ranks of the Dutch defence, taking his completed pass tally to an astonishing 669.

The final. The World Cup final, with all the attendant pressure and hyperbole, is rarely anywhere near as good as you might hope. But this was grim. The Dutch have received much criticism for their over-aggressive approach but it was their use of the ball that I found frustrating. Wesley Sneijder barely showed.

The Spain move for the Paraguay goal and Diego Forlan’s solo efforts were superb but this edges it because of the purity of the strike. Power, dip and accuracy, going in off the top of the inside of the far post. The context made it all the finer: what a way for one of the nice guys of the game to score his last goal.

Worst game

England v Algeria. You could not really fault the Algerians for taking a conservative approach but the sheer insipidity and incompetence of England’s approach made this almost unwatchable. Has ever a team laden with so much expectation played with such lack of ambition?

Favourite non-football memory

A bit of a cheat – it is football-related – but it would have to be the open-top bus tour the South African players did before the start of the tournament. It was the moment the World Cup began and it captured the boundary-breaking moment.

What I won't miss about South Africa

Paul Ince as a pundit for South African television; vuvuzelas at dawn; Bloemfontein; media centre food; the oleaginous Sepp Blatter.

Best fans

Mexico. Here in huge numbers and relentlessly good-humoured. They mixed well with other fans and locals and were noisy at their own games. Plus they have the best songs.

There was a lot of pre-tournament worry about how good (or bad) South Africa were. That anxiety evaporated with Tshabalala’s superb goal. The atmosphere in Soccer City that day was incredible.

Rising star

Thomas Müller. He had looked a really promising player during Bayern Munich’s run to the Champions League final but who knew he would kick on so quickly? And speed was of the essence: his pace on the counter-attack destroyed England and Argentina.

Biggest managerial cock-up

Diego Maradona did not have the meltdown many had predicted, but watching Argentina get cut to ribbons by Germany, with a winger playing in holding midfield and an inexperienced centre-back at right-back, you had to think El Diego had paid the price for the mad decision to leave Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso out of the squad.